Archive for the ‘cook-off’ Category

As promised, here are the recipes for the Vanilla Bean and Bananas Foster Creme Brulee I made from my previous post. I adapted both versions of creme brulee from one of Barefoot Contessa’s recipes. They both essentially have the same creme brulee base, but I spiced things up a little and tried to get a little bit more creative. After all this was a dessert challenge I was competing in.

Since this was my first time making creme brulee, I decided to buy a creme brulee torch set from Bed Bath & Beyond. For $19.99, you get a set of 4 ramekins and a creme brulee torch (warning: the torch does not come with butane, so you have to buy that separately at another store like your local grocery or hardware store). I really liked the set of ramekins the kit came with; they are not too deep and are the perfect size for individual servings.

As far as the whole baking process, it was fairly easy and not time consuming at all. All I had to do was mix the ingredients and pop it in the oven. The only thing that took a little bit of time was cooling the creme brulee for a couple hours in the fridge. The best part was of course the torching. I made sure to put plenty of sugar(I like having a thick layer caramelized sugar on top) and torched away. Another thing to note is that if you do end up buying the creme brulee kit, the mini torch takes a bit longer to caramelize the sugar. So, don’t fret, the torch will do its job, but just don’t expect to have the creme brulee caramelized in 5 seconds so plan accordingly.

2) In the bowl, mix the egg, egg yolks, and 1/2 cup of the sugar together until combined. Meanwhile, scald the cream in
a saucepan until it’s very hot to the touch but not boiled.You should see tiny bubbles coming up on the sides of the
pan which will mean its ready.

3) Very slowly stir in the cream into the egg mixture. Add the vanilla beans and pour into ramekins until almost full.

4) Place the ramekins in a baking dish and pour boiling water into the dish until it comes about halfway up the sides of
the ramekins. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the custards are set when gently shaken. Remove the custards from
the water bath, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until firm.

5) To serve, spread 2 tablespoons of sugar evenly on the top of each ramekin and heat with a kitchen blowtorch until
the sugar carmelizes evenly. Allow to sit at room temperature for a minute until the caramelized sugar hardens.

2) In the bowl, mix the egg, egg yolks, and 1/2 cup of the sugar together until combined. Meanwhile, scald the cream in
a saucepan until it’s very hot to the touch but not boiled.You should see tiny bubbles coming up on the sides of the
pan which will mean its ready.

3) Very slowly stir in the cream into the egg mixture. Add the vanilla extract and pour into ramekins until almost full.

4) Place the ramekins in a baking dish and pour boiling water into the dish until it comes about halfway up the sides of
the ramekins. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the custards are set when gently shaken. Remove the custards from
the water bath, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until firm.

5) Slice bananas thinly and cover the ramekins in a scalloped fashion. Make sure to overlap each row as you go, so it
covers the creme brulee well. Sprinkle cinnamon on top of the bananas.

6) To serve, spread 1 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of light brown sugar evenly on the top of each ramekin and
heat with a kitchen blowtorch until the sugar caramelizes evenly. Allow to sit at room temperature for a minute until
the caramelized sugar hardens.

Note: The bananas fosters creme brulee will caramelize faster and may burn easily due to the brown sugar, so be careful!

The other week, my friends and I did our second Top Chef/Throwdown style challenge. This time we did a dessert challenge and the goal was to create any dessert of our choice. My team made a duo of creme brulee: vanilla bean creme brulee and bananas foster cream brulee. The other team was really creative with their dessert. They made a sushi dessert dish, and everything looked exactly like sushi! I was so amazed!

The dessert challenge was a lot less stressful than our previous challenge. It was much easier to concentrate making one dish. This time we decided to give ourselves the whole day to create our dish and just make sure that everything was done by 9pm.

My team’s creme brulee turned out well, which is pretty exciting especially for my first time trying to make it. Out of the two that we made, I think that the bananas foster one was my favorite. You can never go wrong with a combination of banana, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Delish. The dessert sushi also tasted great and it was really fun to eat! I definitely want to try to make it one day.

So, it looks like these cook-offs are going to be an ongoing event. The next one we have planned is a breakfast challenge and I’m pretty excited because I already have an idea of what I want to make. So, stay tuned for the next challenge and I will post the creme brulee recipes soon!

The other week, my friends and I decided to test our culinary abilities and create a Top Chef/Throwdown challenge for ourselves. The four of us split into 2 groups and decided to use the BBQ grill as our theme for this challenge. Both teams had to make an appetizer, entree, and a drink. At least one of the dishes had to be cooked on the grill and there was no key ingredient we had to use. However, the day of the challenge we realized that both teams had decided to cook bacon wrapped scallops as the appetizer, so it ended up becoming a bacon wrapped scallop throwdown by accident. So much for creative thinking haha.

I’m happy to say that my team won 2 out of the 3 dishes! We won the appetizer and entree dishes, while the other team won the drink challenge. My friends and I had a great time during this challenge and it definitely gave us a good excuse to cook and eat good food. We had so much fun that we decided to do another challenge and it will be my specialty! Dessert!!! So, stay tuned to hear how our dessert challenge goes!